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Every day, we get calls from people looking to hire a personal injury lawyer here in Santa Clarita and surrounding areas. However, we have to turn them away because it turns out they don't have much of an injury! In some cases, they aren't injured at all but insist on "drawing blood" from someone who "wronged" them. In auto accident cases, there is little my legal representation can do if there is no visible damage to the vehicles! Here are two funny videos created by personal injury lawyers in New York that drive the point home in a clever (and over-dramatic) manner. Remember, you actually have to be injured to bring a claim for personal injury!
Therefore, if you have suffered a significant injury from an accident, give us a call to discuss your options. We serve Santa Clarita, Valencia, Saugus, Canyon Country, Newhall, Castaic, Stevenson Ranch and surrounding communities. I decided to take the top questions I get regarding personal injury and accident cases and put them all into a booklet entitled "Personal Injury Question & Answer Handbook." Topics addressed include how to take photos of the damage to your car, when to see the doctor, how to handle insurance adjusters, who will fix your car, who will pay for your medical bills and much more. You can download the PDF of the book by clicking on "Free Book" from the main menu or by clicking here. I serve Santa Clarita, Castaic, Saugus, Canyon Country, Valencia, Newhall, Stevenson Ranch and surrounding areas.
Many times people call my office and they say, “Rob, how do I know if I actually have personal injury case?” Let me make something very clear: Just because an accident happened doesn’t mean that you have to make a claim. There needs to be a showing that someone was negligent, and that their negligence caused injury to you – and that injury has to be more than a little scratch on your nail! It has to be a compensable appreciable injury. If you want to discuss your personal injury case with me please feel free to contact my office. Thank you very much.
Hi, this is Robert Mansour. There are five common mistakes I see in personal injury cases that I want to share with you.
The first one: Giving far too much information to the adjuster during that very first phone call. Not a very good idea. No. 2: Failing to take pictures of all the vehicle damage, injuries, etc. You’ve got to document those things. No. 3: Waiting too long to go to the doctor if you’ve been injured. The longer you wait, the more the insurance company is going to say that you had no injury whatsoever. Also, not mentioning your injuries to the doctor. You go to the doctor but you forget to mention something or you figure you’re going to tough it out and not say anything to the doctor. A very common mistake. Finally, you have to have reasonable expectations when it comes to your personal injury case. This is not the lottery. No one is going to get rich. It’s all about fair compensation. If you have any questions about this or anything else, please contact my office. Thank you. Here are some reasons to hire a personal injury lawyer:
Be wary of inconsistent behavior after an automobile accident. I recently had a client who claimed to be very injured from an auto accident but was subsequently seen dancing at a party about a week after the accident! Not a good idea! She certainly didn’t look hurt to anyone attending the party.
If there were any witnesses or others who saw you doing the inconsistent behavior, they can potentially testify against you. You don’t want your inconsistent activity showing up on the social media websites either! I always encourage my clients to be truthful. Inconsistent behavior such as dancing at a party a few days after an accident that allegedly provided great injury to you is not going to help your case. Also, some insurance companies are very aggressive and hire investigators to film you going to the supermarket, going to the gym, hanging out with your friends and going to a party, playing with your children in the park, and many other activities that may prove to be inconsistent with your allegation of injury. If they want to get very zealous about it, they can bring an action against you for insurance fraud if they can prove you were faking your allegations. Again, candor is the best policy. Please don’t be compelled to talk to everybody about your personal injury case. Remember there is something called confidentiality that exists between an attorney and his or her client. That confidentiality does not exist between the client and anyone else - even their spouse.
I’ve had some cases where my clients tell friends and family information about the accident case that isn’t terribly helpful to their case. If those people are called to testify, they might testify against you and whatever you’ve told them is fair game. You can’t claim confidentiality of any sort. You can’t even claim it if the witness is your spouse! Spousal privilege only applies to criminal cases. Therefore, unless it is imperative that you share certain information with other people, please keep the facts of your accident case to yourself. Share the information about your accident with your doctor and with your attorney and no one else unless it’s absolutely necessary. Of course, if you do share information with others, always make sure it’s consistent with your claim! What you say to other people can come back to haunt you later on. Just because an accident occurred, and it wasn’t your fault, does not necessarily mean that some insurance company is going to pay your medical bills and other related expenses. There needs to be a showing that another party or entity actually caused the accident to occur, whether it is a car accident or other kind of injury matter. You must be able to show that someone was negligent at the very least and that negligence caused your injury to occur. Many times clients tell me that they were involved in an accident but it wasn’t anyone’s fault. If we cannot show the other party did something wrong or negligent, we will likely be unable to prove that you should recover any kind of compensation.
Aside from a basic showing of "negligence," we also have to prove you had "damages" from the incident. Just because you can show someone was negligent doesn't automatically mean you get compensated. If you had no injuries, then you can't legitimately bring a claim...especially one for personal injury. You can of course bring a claim for property damage if you actually incurred property damage. Therefore, there needs to be a showing of negligence, and there needs to be a showing of actual damages incurred. Without both, you are wasting your time. |
Attorney Robert MansourRobert Mansour is an attorney in Santa Clarita, California who has been practicing law since 1993. After working for 13 years for the insurance companies, he now counsels victims of personal injury. Click here to learn more about Robert Mansour. Categories
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May 2025
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Free Consultations 661-414-7100 / Text 661-402-1125
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